SENIOR SUPT. G.C. Grant, testified yesterday that when he went to the Seymour Park office of attorney-at-law Shirley Playfair on April 13, 2000, he saw Annette Livingston, one of the four persons charged with murdering Mrs. Playfair, "typing" on a computer.
He said some of the other employees who were in the office were crying, while some were sitting with their heads down. He saw no one else beside Livingston doing any work. Det. Supt. Benjamin who was also at the office said to Livingston, "Woman leave the computer alone", and she got up from the computer. Senior Supt. Grant said that Livingston was not crying and she appeared normal.
On trial since Monday, March 24 in the Home Circuit Court, are Annette Livingston, 40, who was Mrs. Playfair's secretary for some 19 years, Ramone Drysdale, 26, also called "Fudgie", of Metcalfe Road, Kingston 13, and Ashley Ricketts, 28, taxi-driver, of Maxfield Avenue, Kingston 13. Dwayne "Amin" Williams, 26, of Metcalfe Road, was also charged with the murder but he escaped from police custody on April 22, 2002.
Mrs. Playfair, 60, was in her office at the Seymour Park office and shopping complex, 2 Seymour Avenue, Kingston 10, having soup for lunch, when men went there and slashed her throat.
Sherron Brydson, government analyst, testified on Friday and yesterday that DNA tests proved that the two ratchet knives which were allegedly taken by the police from Drysdale and Williams, had Mrs. Playfair's blood on them. She said that from statistics it was only 5.6 persons in a trillion who could have been the donor of the blood. She said the knives were the weapons used to inflict the injuries to Mrs. Playfair.
Senior Supt. Grant testified yesterday that after he left Mrs. Playfair's office he went to the Half-Way Tree Police Station where he saw Ricketts, Drysdale and Williams; he knew them before. He said that Ricketts said, "Mr. Grant, mi just carry dem boy up there." Ricketts said he was willing to give a statement and tell him how everything went. Ricketts gave a statement which was witnessed by Det. Trevor Bailey.
He said that on April 19, 2000, he went back to the station and Ricketts called out to him saying that he wanted to give another statement because he did not tell him everything. He said he got Claudius Taylor, a Justice of the Peace, to witness the second statement.
The statement is likely to be read to the jury when the trial resumes today before Miss Justice Kay Beckford in the Home Circuit Court, King Street, downtown Kingston.
